“We are liberal with a lowercase ‘L,’” he said during an interview on HuffPost Live.

Neblett’s comments were made during a larger discussion about MSNBC’s all-white primetime lineup.

The pop culture author, responsible for titles including, “The Sad Sweet Story of Sugar Lips Shinehot and the Portable Promised Land,” argued that though there are no black MSNBC hosts in primetime slots, the current lineup is “brilliant” and “extraordinary.”

“If you were able to say to me that there is a person who is not brilliant…then you can say something, but we have three extraordinary people,” he said.

HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill asked Neblett whether MSNBC was avoiding signing on a black host for a primetime show because of some sort of deep-rooted hostility toward blacks.

“I don’t think that there’s a barrier to where [MSNBC chief] Phil Griffin’s like, ‘I’m not going to hire a black person,’” he replied. “We have an openly gay woman at 9 o’clock.”

“I could surely see at some point the right person come along and get one of the spots,” he added.